


Night Winds and Just Liars

by ShianneUrami



Category: Homestuck, Mass Effect
Genre: Asari!Rose, Turian!Vriska
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:04:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShianneUrami/pseuds/ShianneUrami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You are accusing me of being unable to control my baser primal urges.”</p><p>Mandibles spread in an odd display, a smile,“Everyone drools over a big dripping steak Rose.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Winds and Just Liars

**Author's Note:**

> Commission for Obv

The beat pulsed through the floor, an ambient song that put the club into a hazy trance. It was fascinating to watch the energy shift in the room, all by the choice of the music the patrons subjected to the whims of the disk jockey. He was a small wiry Salarian with broken horns. From her seat she could see how intently his eyes watched the crowd and the way they moved, regardless of the shades he wore.

“You look lonely.”

A finger idly tracing the lip of a glass and a mind sifting through the club snapped back to reality. The asari looked up from her wandering to see a turian standing at her booth, watching her with bright eyes. Female, taller than she with a gorgeous scarred fringe. A sleek metal prosthetic arm and a rather convincing eye to match, a sharp red next to a grey blue. Barefaced.

She rose an eyebrow, “What would make you think that?”

The turian was quick with an answer, “I know an exile when I see one.”

The asari tilted her head a fraction, her interest suddenly pinpointed on this other alien. Gesturing to the seat opposite her with long, slender fingers she turned all of her attention on this turian female.

“You have a keen eye.”  
  
She scooted into the booth, tall even sitting and settled one ankle on one knee, the spurs on her calves made sitting against the booth a little uncomfortable. Six fingers flexed against each other, a nervous or anxious tick.

Clearing her throat the asari waved a hand to the other before picking her glass up. She set it to her lips and spoke over it, eyes calculating, “What is it you did to lose their trust?”

Silence.

A sip of sickly pink liquid and a curt little nod, “Very well then, would you prefer if this were a back and forth? Give and take? I tell you, and you tell me.”

“I suppose. Not that you’ll get much out of me.”

“Names first I should think. I am Rose Lalonde, hailing from Illium,” she said with a bow of her head, her eyes never leaving the turian’s face.

“Vriska,” was the simplest reply. At least she stood true to her word about very little information.

“It is a pleasure meeting you Vriska,” Rose said politely, waving over a waitress and ordering a couple of drinks, handing off her half finished poor initial choice.

“How’re you here?” Vriska asked quickly, her mandibles clenching and unclenching. She was stupidly nervous to be talking to Rose. Such a mystery.

“I took a shuttle,” the asari laughed, light and airy.

Vriska clicked in irritation, “Not here in the bar stupid,” she snarled quietly, “Here. Outside. Ardat-Yakshi are dangerous.

Rose’s heart slammed against her ribs in a too quick but all too familiar three beat tempo, fast and painful. She didn’t let it show across her face though. If nothing else, she was good at lying. The waitress set their drinks down in her silence and Vriska looked hers over incredulously. Rose sipped hers, swallowing hard as the fire laced through her.

“You assume I am Ardat-Yakshi. Perhaps I am simply an asari cast away for being… eccentric in her ways,” she offered, an alternative to the turian’s ridiculous notion.

Raptor eyes settled on her, sharp and hungry, “I’ve never met another being that  _reeked_ of potential death like you do. If you’re not a demon of the night winds I’ll eat my own fringe.”

Rose smoothed out her skirts with a flick of her wrist. Now she was the one who was nervous. She cleared her throat and sighed softly, “There really is no point in so vehemently denying the truth. While it may be true I am Ardat-Yakshi, I am not strong enough or troublesome enough for the asari government to do more than keep an eye on me. I have never killed, and I don’t plan to.”

It was the truth. Or as much of the truth as she could put in herself. If she lost her wits at any point, she couldn’t keep that promise. But that was something the asari, the Ardat-Yakshi had to take in strides unfortunately.

The turian laughed and it was like the chirp of a bird, her fangs bared, “And what about when you hit puberty?”

Rose choked on a sip of her drink, “E-excuse me?”

“Maidens explore and seek knowledge, Matrons wanna settle down and have lots of babies, right?” Vriska took up her glass, using it to gesture to the asari, “You can’t have sex with anyone, you’d fry their brain!”

She narrowed her eyes, honestly offended by the accusations, “I cannot  _meld_ with anyone. Sex is a wonderful pastime as long as I am able to keep my mind to myself. I don’t need to be one with someone to feel pleasure. Do you?”

“But that time’ll come. That shit’s inevitable. You can’t escape what’s in your blood,” she sneered, tongue quickly darting out to run over her mandibles. She was enjoying this, Rose could see the fire and excitement dancing in her eyes.

The asari sighed, this alien more troublesome than pleasurable company right now, “Ardat-Yakshis like myself are eternally trapped in their Maiden phase. Constantly learning and moving, growing. I will never want a family or children. Only partners.”

Vriska rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She leaned forward, setting her drink aside, “Is that your way of admitting that you’ll kill? ‘Only partners.’ How many have you really killed Rose?”

Jaw set, the vein in the side of her neck bulged and she laced her fingers tight enough her knuckles paled, “I am admitting that Salarians are as quick with their mouths as they seem, Krogans are much better than they are made out to be and Hanar are a wonderful, cooperative tool who’re more than willing to help if asked politely.”

The turian fell silent, staring at the asari before her. She turned her attention out to the rest of the club. When she spoke again she didn’t look at Rose, and her voice sounded far off, like she was fighting to keep the conversation going but was distracted elsewhere in her mind.

“Isn’t there a… temptation?”

Rose lifted her hands to rest her chin on them, brow high as she inspected the other, “Do I seem tempted?”

Vriska looked back quickly, “It’s a hunger, isn’t it? A need to feed on intellect and rend minds asunder. Poetic shit like that.”

“You are accusing me of being unable to control my baser primal urges.”

Mandibles spread in an odd display, a smile,“Everyone drools over a big dripping steak Rose.”

“How many of us though, that if we are told and we know not to go after the meat will do it anyway? If I am trusted not to, I won’t. And I am certainly trusted not to take the bait. I am not a threat to you or anyone else.”

“No, you’re a threat to yourself.”

“You’re a fine one to talk,” Rose said smoothly.

Vriska hissed, harsh and foreign and angry. Claws scratched into the table under her hands and her mandibles shook.

Rose looked over her nails, then set purple eyes on the alien before her, “Vriska, what did you do to lose their trust? Or rather, why do you seek death so insistently?”

“I never had their trust to begin with,” she hissed, clamping down on her answer a bit too late. She suddenly looked ashamed she’d let it slip out.

“You won’t tell me?”

She shook her head, dropping a few coins on the table for the drink before standing up, “I don’t have anything to tell you.”

Rose blinked once, twice before picking up her drink. She swirled the contents of the glass around, watching it shimmer under the dim lighting.

“She trusted you though, and you broke that trust.”

Hands slammed into the table, “You don’t know anything about her! Shut your mouth!”

Both eyebrows high, she was honestly surprised. Her shot in the dark had gotten her right on target. Good thing she always went with her gut feeling. She smiled, her dark lips pulling a tight line across her face, “Then tell me how wrong I am,” Rose gestured back to the seat across from her.

Vriska looked from the asari to the booth and back again, but didn’t move. She stood rigid and silent. Rose waited patiently. It was all a matter of time until she cracked and spilled. Blue surrounded her eyes, little wisps of light that Rose knew well enough. Biotics. From a turian. Tonight was just getting more and more interesting.

“I was with the others in a Cabal. I’m one’a those pretty little spike faces with high biotic capabilities.” The lights flickered before fading with her own sad smile, trying to force humor and snark into her words to cover the sadness therein

She settled back into the booth awkwardly, “It doesn’t happen often and the high ups, they love it. The common soldiers though? The guys you gotta work shoulder to shoulder with? Not a scrap of respect or trust. Biotic turians are freaks, and they didn’t trust me by default. I never did anything wrong and they all _hated_ me.”

Rose wanted to offer a consoling hand, but maybe that was a little much right now. She waited a handful of heartbeats before she asked quietly, “Did you continue to have a flawless record? Or are you simply a victim to judgemental bullies?”

Vriska clicked, “So altruistic Rose,” she snapped bitterly.

“What happened to her Vriska?” Rose urged the conversation on, eager and greedy for the knowledge the turian had to offer her.

“She was assigned to keep an eye on me. It was a morale boost, it put their minds at ease. I was dangerous and they put me on a showy leash.”

Again she was lost in that faraway place, stumbling through a memory that brought a nostalgic smile to her face. It was almost pitiful watching the veil fall over her eyes. But it was interesting nonetheless.

“She was a snake with a gorgeous smile. She hated me too,” she laughed, and it almost sounded genuine. “And holy fuck did she let me know it. But she was so just and right, following all the rules and scolding me when I did wrong. She didn’t like doing fun things.”

Vriska trailed off, her eyes wavering with something Rose dared to call longing, lost affection.

“What did you do to her Vriska?” Rose asked, her voice cracked.

“I stabbed out her pretty little eyes...”

The asari could do nothing, say nothing. There was nothing _to_ say. Nothing she _could_ say. Vriska’s prosthetic clinked quietly as she looked her hand over, closing her hand like she were closing a box on the memories. Something shifted in her then and all the raw emotion and hurt, sad girl Rose had just seen disappeared.

“They put me on death row. I was gonna face it with my head high. I did what I did with a clear mind. She saw things she was never meant to see. She saw me, and I made sure she wouldn’t ever again. But she… defended me. With bandages still stained teal she stood in front of them and told them that what I did, I did in defense.”

The blood rushing in Rose’s head was very loud in her ears, “She… lied?”

Vriska nodded slowly, sitting back hard enough to jar herself. She looked tired.

Turians were known for something the rest of the universe called, ‘turian honor’. No one could ever explain why, but it was an almost undisputed fact of the race. A turian could murder and try to cover it up, but if asked straight if they were guilty or not, nine times out of ten they would admit to their wrongdoings. And this other turian, this one that Vriska spoke so fondly of, lied to her superiors for her.

How the guilt hadn’t eaten her alive yet was testament to her stubborn nature, clearly.

The two sat together in silence, listening to the sounds of the club around them, though they were far off and muffled. Rose was the first to stand. She smoothed out her skirts and set payment for her drinks on the table with a small tip before she offered her hand to Vriska. She looked it over before taking it, standing next to her.

The two left the club together and climbed into the same shuttle together.


End file.
